£200,OOO FRAUD WAS EXPOSED BY LOVERS’ ROW
PARTNER IN CRIME SET TO FLEE AS DUMPED BOYFRIEND REPORTED HER
A SPURNED lover carried out his threat to shop his girlfriend for stealing about £200,000 worth of stock from an Amazon depot where they operated a lucrative scam for months, writes Suzy Gibson.
The fraud earned the couple about £10,000 a month from the cut-price sale of the stolen goods, but Lucian Leonte carried out his threat to report Maria Simona Stricescu to the police if she left him.
When she did, his call landed them both in the dock at Leicester Crown Court.
The defendants both worked at Amazon’s East Midlands Airport depot.
When police turned up at their home, Stricescu was about to leave the UK and go back to Romania, with her car packed full of stolen goods.
A SPURNED lover shopped his girlfriend for stealing about £200,000 worth of stock from an Amazon depot after they operated a lucrative scam for months.
The spree earned the couple about £10,000 a month from the cut price sale of the stolen goods.
But when Maria Simona Stricescu decided to leave Lucian Leonte, he carried out his threat to report her to the police.
He telephoned the force on January 29 and officers arrived just as Stricescu was about to jump in her Audi and drive to Romania.
Police seized £50,000 worth of stolen Amazon stock from their home and cars.
At Leicester Crown Court, Andrew Peet, prosecuting, said: “The defendants both worked at Amazon’s East Midlands Airport depot, in Kegworth.”
Stricescu, 51, was a picker, selecting orders from warehouse shelves for shipment to customers.
She would dishonestly delete items from the database in order to steal them.
Leonte, 37, a packer, sold on the stolen goods, advertising them online at prices which undercut Amazon by 40 to 60 per cent.
Mr Peet said: “In terms of each item sold, every penny was profit.
“They were both given a high degree of trust by Amazon. The system allowed them to deceive their employer into thinking the items selected and packed had been sent on to customers.”
Their crimes came to light when the two had “a falling out” at their home in Sherwood Avenue, Borrowash, Derby.
The prosecutor said: “Stricescu was about to leave the UK and go back to Romania. The car was packed and she was ready to go when the police arrived.
“There were two cars, one a Vauxhall Corsa, which had a number of Amazon-labelled items inside, including clothing, phones, watches and ear buds.”
Officers found a further 215 stolen items in the boot of Stricescu’s Audi, which had been bought with some of the illegal profits.
Mr Peet said: “Inside the house, across three bedrooms were a raft of items stolen from Amazon, including electrical goods, cameras, watches and beauty products – totalling £50,000.”
Leonte appeared in court via a video link from prison and Stricescu sat in the dock, sometimes sobbing and crying loudly.
A Romanian interpreter translated proceedings for both.
Both had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to fraud by abuse of position and removing criminal property from England, by transferring thousands of pounds to a bank account in Romania, between June 30, 2019 and January 29 this year.
Stricescu also admitted converting criminal property by purchasing her secondhand Audi.
The court heard text messages on the defendants’ phones revealed conversations such as “We have £30,000” and references to a tranche of items being sold for thousands, including via the CeX technology high street store, plus a reference to £10,000 worth of sales in January alone.
Stricescu confided, in messages to her daughter, she had £15,000 stashed away that Leonte was unaware of and she was considering leaving him because he was too possessive and controlling.
Mr Peet said the defendants each blamed the other for getting them involved in the offences.
He said the exact value of stolen items were “well in excess of £100,000”.
But Recorder Francesca Levett went further, saying based on available figures: “The quantity was in the region of £200,000.”
Sentencing, she told Leonte: “You claim you did your best to stop Miss Stricescu from stealing.
“I’m told you had a gambling habit that ate into your lawful earnings and that’s why you got involved.
“I accept you called the police, which brought this matter to the attention of the authorities.”
Andrew Turton, mitigating for Stricescu, a twice-divorced grandmother, said: “She made full admissions to the police on arrest, admitting it started 18 months earlier, which could not have been proved without those admissions.
“She became involved in something that got wildly out of hand and was fearful of her co-defendant and others. She felt pressured to continue offending.
“Her co-accused was the driving force behind the offences and manipulated and controlled her.”
Nicola Hunter, for Leonte, said: “They both wanted to stop what they’d started and it was difficult not to become reliant on that level of income, because of his gambling addiction.
“That’s why his partner was in control of the money, to the extent she had sums he was not even aware of.”
Stricescu and Leonte were each jailed for two years and seven months.
ITEMS FROM WAREHOUSE STOLEN AND SOLD ONLINE